Energy Efficient Lighting (as of April, 2008 - focus on Whatcom County, Washington)
1) Energy Independence and Security Act of 2007 - Incandescents are on the way out - all light bulbs must use 25% to 30% less energy than today's products by 2012 to 2014. The phase-in will start with 100-watt bulbs in January 2012 and end with 40-watt bulbs in January 2014. By 2020, bulbs must be 70% more efficient. Compact fluorescent bulbs are already close to the 70% efficiency standard. A compact fluorescent costs roughly on average about $2, vs. about 50 cents for an incandescent. Some manufacturers like GE plan to meet the 25%– 30% req. with some incandescents for applications where customers feel that they still need them, but they will probably be more expensive than current bulbs and it is highly unlikely if not impossible to create 70% more efficient incandescents. 2) Fluorescent and CFLs (Compact Fluorescents) – see information about mercury contained in bulbs and proper disposal practices. a. Quality is sometimes difficult to pin down. Many manufacturers get their bulbs from multiple sources which can change over time. In general, expense and large brand names are some indication of quality. GE, Sylvannia, Philips, Panasonic tend to sell good CFLs. According to Consumer Reports N:Vision sold at Home Depot may be relatively reliable and is less expensive than many of the other local options. Lights of America and Maxlite are the brands that I personally have had the worst luck with in terms of bulbs not lasting long and developing annoying characteristics light producing pink light and flickering. Feit has had a reasonable reputation in the past, but a lot of their bulbs are being sold at a very low cost now at Walgreens and Costco, and recent tests by Consumer Reports have shown some of their bulbs only 3/8 of their rated lifespan. (even then they easily pay for themselves and then some in comparison to using the equivalent incandescent) from Consumer Reports May 2008 Issue ILLUMINATING UPDATE ON CFLs After thousands of hours, most of the 13- to 15-watt compact fluorescent lights we are testing still work, That's good news, considering that equivalent 60-watt incandescents typically last only 1,000 hours. All of the CFLs qualified for the Energy Star proqram. But the light went out early on seven of nine Feit Ecobulb E5L13T bulbs, which cost about $2.25 apiece. Most of these failed between 3,300 to 3,900 hours of lighting in our tests, which cycle them on and off. The package claimed 8,000 hours average life. A better choice was the Feit EcobulbPlus ESL13T/Eco ($2.66). All 10 samples of that model passed a 5,OOO-hour preliminary test and they are being tested further, along with other brands. Sofar, here are some other good choices: GE 8,000 Hour Long Life 41525 N:Vision 423599, (sold at Home Depot)
were both still on after 7,600 hours. We paid about $2 to $4.50 a bulb. All of the bulbs we are testing claim to have less than 5 mllliqrams of mercury. Ecobulb Plus claims less than 2.5 mg; N:Vision, 2.3 to 3.5 mg. CFLs should be recycled so that mercury isn't released into the environment, but most municipalities don't have programs to collect CFLs, and neither do most stores. Although not all CFLs will last their claimed life, our testing has shown that most should last much longer than incandescent bulbs and pay for themselves in energysavings, Even the Feit bulbs that quit at 3,300 hours could save about $13 over their short lifespan. 3) Local Availability of CFLs a. Hardware Sales Has a large selection of CFLs and usually keeps coupons from PSE with the bulbs so you can use them when you buy bulbs there. Bulbs sold or orderable at Hardware sales: (you need to go to the store to see the full selection)
http://doitbest.com/Main.aspx?associate=true&N=4294966761&PageId=365&Ne=4294967294&Ns=Most%20Popular%7C1&memberid=10 44
(If you don’t want to type all of this then go here: http://www.hardwaresales.doitbest.com/home.aspx and navigate to lighting) Internet listing of lighting products: http://www.hardwaresales.net/hs-lighting2.htm Nuvo fixtures (including some that use CFLs) http://www.nuvolighting.com/ b. Village Lighting Website - http://www.villagelightinginc.com/ (limited info here – mainly location and hours) They have a very limited supply of CFL bulbs. They have a few fixtures that use smaller flourescent bulbs – circular or CFL, but generally I have found them to be limited in knowledge and helpfulness when it comes to energy efficient lighting. c. Walgreen’s – often has some big display large discount going on for bulbs and sometimes fixtures. The cost for these deals can be very low, but the most recent one I saw was for Feit bulbs (see Consumer Reports review above) d. Fred Meyers – has a relatively large selection with a number of bulb types – GE and Lights of America – also sometimes have the PSE discount coupons by their bulb displays e. Lowes In store - Has a limited selection of bulbs – Sylvannia and Feit Website link to lighting (products available in stores and/or online – use their check for local availability) http://www.lowes.com/lowes/lkn?action=categorySelect&Ne=6000&category=Lighting&N=0+500 0559 f. Home Depot – Has a large selection of bulb types, most recently all of the bulbs seemed to be from N:Vision (made by TCP) g. Wal-Mart – Large assortment of bulbs GE, Lights of America, house brand? (supposedly made by TCP) h. Haggens – Small assortment of GE bulbs in different sizes, with a few styles - one 3-way and one encapsulated vanity style – not the cheapest and not the most expensive i. Internet
Better known sources: www.1000bulbs.com www.goodmart.com www.lightbulbdirect.com www.buylighting.com www.lightingonthenet.com
4) LEDs (light emitting diodes) – local availability is still (for the most part) non-existent with the exception of nightlights, LED Christmas lights, yard lights (solar or low power wiring), flashlights and various other very low power applications. Recent generations of bulbs have been doubling the amount of light produced per wattage (energy used) approximately every 18 months, so the energy savings benefit is becoming far and away the absolute best available. Until recently LEDs have been impractical to consider for most residential lighting due to the following: Cost – some bulb material is expensive and will probably cause bulbs to remain more expensive than CFLs or incandescents, but this is primarily due to lack of economies that happen when a product become widely adopted and large scale manufacturing provides cost reductions. Heat problems when using more power for more light output – although LEDs produce far less heat than traditional bulbs they are also far more sensitive to heat which can destroy the bulbs. Improvements in materials and construction have helped, along with the inclusion of heat sink fins in the design of larger, residential style bulbs. Directionality – LED chips tend to produce light that is very linear – radiates in one direction. This is being overcome now both by arranging arrays of chips to direct light in multiple directions and by using reflectors and diffusers to redirect the light in more global patterns. Color – there have been white LED lights for some time, but few if any that produced a warm white like incandescents that many people seem to prefer (because that is what they are used to? – sunlight is more like pure white) – (the same complaint has been made about the CFLs which now have warm white options) LED bulbs are now becoming available in increasing variety and quantity that produce a warm white light. b. Advantages of LEDs More light per watt than any of the current lighting types that have widespread availability (they may eventually be exceeded by other solid state lighting types like OLEDs which are in earlier stages of research and development, but that is probably a fair distance in the future) 1. Tests have indicated that the majority of CFLs when tested produce only ¾ of their rated lumen output 2. Current generation of LEDs is producing lumens equivalent to an incandescent that uses 6 times as many watts. (CFLs are = incandescents using 3 to 4 times the wattage). And LED bulbs are close to production showing light output that will require only 1/12 the wattage of an equivalent incandescent. Much greater durability – typically rated 30000 to 50000 hrs – and that is not the estimated duration to failure, it is the point at which the lights will have dropped to 70% of their original light output. 1. Note that many fluorescents (particularly CFLs) do not last their rated lifetime
2. Not only will they last longer in normal usage – they are also less fragile than CFLs and less susceptible to moisture, frequent on and off switching, and (I believe) brown power. No mercury (in contrast to all fluorescents) Some (and probably eventually most) will be dimmable – again in contrast to most fluorescents with the exception of some more expensive ones. c. Availability – Currently limited primarily to the Internet (and wholesale distributors) for Residential lights – Note that you often can get a better price than advertised on the web if you call or email a website about current pricing (some websites are better than others on keeping their posted prices current), particularly if you are going to order a volume of expensive lights like the LR6. CREE (commercial products formerly LLF) – This is probably the leading LED lighting chip manufacturer in the world. They recently bought a light maker that was using their chips to make the 1st high quality LED retrofit option for can lights so they also sell ready to install lights. www.cree.com look for “LED lighting solutions” on the Products menu. Standard 6” can light retrofit – LR6 – 12 watts, 650 lumens, 92 CRI –2700K and 3500K Coming soon :LR4 – for 4” cans In the lab a bulb that produces the same amount of light as the LR6, but only uses 5.9 watts EarthLED – website with LED bulbs including straight screw in light bulb replacements (these bulbs for the most part seem to be using LED chips from CREE) http://store.earthled.com/ Generic Lighting Websites with lots of products: 1. Lamps Plus - http://www.lampsplus.com/ 2. www.ccrane.com - expensive 3. www.ledlight.com 4. www.superbrightleds.com 5. www.ledwaves.com - mostly latest generation of led bulbs with maximum light output 6. www.1000bulbs.com